Willow Clinic is a great sexual health clinic located at 750 West Broadway in Vancouver. They’ve just started offering two new kinds of contraception.
Contraception is any device or procedure that helps prevent pregnancy. If a person wants to have sex but doesn’t want to get pregnant, they will often use contraception. There are lots of different kinds of contraception, and you can get many of them at Willow Clinic. In the last months, they’ve started offering two new kinds.
One of them is contraceptive implants. These are tiny, long-lasting pods that are inserted under the skin – usually in the arm. The pods release a medication that prevents pregnancy. They’ve just become more widely available in Canada in 2021, and they are also the single most effective contraception available in this country today.
As well, the clinic has just started offering vasectomies. A vasectomy is a long-lasting, often permanent form of contraception. It’s a minor surgical procedure which blocks a tube coming out of the testicles – preventing sperm from getting into a person’s semen. Without sperm, a person’s semen can’t get anyone pregnant. Many clinics around Vancouver offer vasectomies, but at most of them you have to pay out of pocket. At Willow Clinic, vasectomies are covered by MSP – so they’re free to anyone with a BC Health number.
For years, Willow Clinic has also offered IUD insertions and removals. IUDs are very effective, long-lasting contraception. They are tiny devices that are inserted in the uterus to prevent pregnancy.
Willow Clinic also offers medication abortions . If a person is pregnant and does not want to be, an abortion is a procedure that ends the pregnancy. When you have a medication abortion, you take two medications to end your pregnancy instead of having a surgical procedure. Dr. Ellen Wiebe – who works at the clinic – is one of the world’s leading experts on medication abortion.
Other services Willow Clinic offers include STI Testing, and Pap Testing.
If you want a vasectomy, a doctor needs to refer you. (If you don’t have a family doctor, then a doctor at an Options for Sexual Health Clinic or a walk-in clinic can refer you.)
If you want any of the other services listed above (Abortion, STI Testing, Pap Testing, IUD Insertion, Contraceptive Implant Insertion) you can contact the clinic directly for an appointment.
To find out more, visit the Willow Clinic website.
